Marine Natural Products From Indonesia and Their Biosynthetic Origins: Part 1: Terpenoids and Meroterpenoids

Marine natural products reflect evolutionary adaptations of marine organisms to their environments. Natural products are biosynthesized via enzymatic and nonenzymatic reactions to serve specific biological functions intra- or interspecifically. The variety of their skeletons and building blocks, together with three-dimensional attributes, such as chirality, shape, and symmetry, has made marine natural products important for the development of advanced materials and pharmaceuticals. Here, an integrated structural analysis of hundreds of new marine terpenoids and meroterpenoids isolated from Indonesian waters is presented, revealing new building blocks, skeletons, and scaffolds, together with previously known structural elements having potential applications in many fields. The present study also discusses isolation, structural determination, and significant biological activities of marine terpenoids and meroterpenoids. Moreover, a new perspective on classification of these molecules based on plausible biosynthetic analyses is also suggested.